Google closes its $1.1B deal with HTC Corp(bloomberg.com) |
Google closes its $1.1B deal with HTC Corp(bloomberg.com) |
Of course, it was a one time fling. Android is the only way. Not a middleway, but the best way.
Clearly the only solution when on Android is to buy high end handsets and nothing at the mid or lower tiers.
I just hope Treble will allow us to install a signed stock ROM (custom ROMs don't count in my book) on any device so all that matters is the hardware and customer support.
you have to compromise on the hardware side
Rooting has it's own rusks and inconveniences, though.
What is wrong with the Pixel hardware? (Have never owned one and have only heard good things)
This is due to the nav buttons being constantly visible in most apps, an option to hide them and only spring up when required would be perfect. It's not the end of the world but it's one of those things that once you notice it you can't forget it.
[1] https://www.thenextrex.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/enable...
So I guess what I'm trying to say here is:
OK GUY.
Care to elaborate? The thing I value about Android is how I can setup the things "my way" vs. "Johnny Ive" way and so make important things far more simple to do than on iPhone.
Also interesting that you chose to test waters with sub par hardware vs. going top of the line Samsung. Both Google and OnePlus are well known to have hardware reliability issues.
Oh and these days iOS is still very locked down. So it just works because you are not allowed to do much. (Like having an app like Tasker for example, or choosing if your USB port on your phone should be used for storage, charging only, or even charging other devices).
Although I suspect that Google's directionless approach does not help.
To speculate a little more wildly it's possible Google's motive is also to push the current Android manufacturers to "up their game" in the same way Google Fiber may have been a subtle threat to internet service providers.
As you suggest, perhaps this iteration of hardware will be like Microsoft Surface. Well built, slightly more pricey hardware that set the bar for the industry..?
Their customer first and formost are ad-buyers and what they sell is your data. Apple’s customers are users, and it shows.
Android really makes me sick though. Touted as free and open, but you still have to root your phone with shady exploits, payloaded over some sketchy USB shell. And then when you do, the custom roms are trash. And I wouldn’t even be rooting these devices if I could just efface some of the stock brand and bloatware, but no, every mobile provider wants me to sign into their analytics package, and billboard their logos all over the place. It’s a wasteland in all directions.
Also, what makes you prefer macOS UX than Windows or Ubuntu? They surely have their downsides, but I don't think they're THAT bad to the point of not even touching one.
An alternative view is that Linux lacks good GUI apps and Windows blows at the command line (despite Bash on Windows). Windows apps also don't have great UX chops in the areas I'd like them to. 1password on Windows sucked the last time I used it, there's no native equivalent to Omnifocus or Things, there's no great calendar app like Fantastical, there's no great indie devs like Readdle[1] or Nucleobytes[2].
This comes from someone who's used all these OSes as well as FreeBSD and OpenBSD for both work and home.
Apple aquired a lot of companies to get their "innovative" features. Siri was aquired (I know, its not great, but it was novel when it came out), PA-Semi was aquired (boosted their in house SoC development), and the original Kinect team for the iPhone X face recognition sensor suite come to mind.
A much bigger list is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...
It's impossible to say how much input/influence each of these mergers had on the products of these companies. Some of these started products, some of these enhanced them, some of these even replaced them.
I see this as more of a sign that Google doesn't care about scaring the hardware manufacturers anymore.
throwing more bodies at the problem isn't going to fix it - this is a top-down issue.
My thoughts when reading this title: https://i.imgur.com/Y6Js3Ju.jpg
Android really makes me sick though. Touted as free and open, but you still have to root your phone with shady exploits, payloaded over some sketchy USB shell. And then when you do, the custom roms are trash. And I wouldn’t even be rooting these devices if I could just efface some of the stock brand and bloatware, but no, every mobile provider wants me to sign into their analytics package, and billboard their logos all over the place. It’s a wasteland in all directions.
You would not want to automate certain things? (Like if you are on work wifi, automatically mute phone for example)
You wouldn't want to be able to get OBD II data from your car through your phone?
Wouldn't you want to be able to use Firefox with a firefox engine and not safari webkit?
and and and
All these are possible with stock android. Not even talking about hacky customizations.
I have a Pixel XL if that makes a difference but I doubt it, as they are practically the same phone.
Samsung has that on the Note 8 (the 5 still had hardware buttons, I'm not sure about the 7, or other lines, though the Note 8’s dimensions means that it is probably the phone that needs it least for real estate reasons, so I'd imagine it's across the line.)
This is an opportunity for investors to hire the other HTC staff who refuse to join Google for ideological reasons (open designs, repairability) or who just didn't get hired. There's probably a few other people from iFixit, WebOS, Fairphone hanging around here.
YC Summer 2018 is open. I'm in Taiwan. Who wants to make a business plan?
I can accept the lack of removable storage and battery. But the headphone jack? That's just the end of the line for me.
Surprisingly, it hasn't bothered me at all. The battery life is long enough (and fast chase is fast enough) that I never need to charge my phone and listen to it at the same time, and I haven't noticed any difference in sound quality using Google's provided dongle.
Sorry if iPhone now supports any of these. It didn't when I switched over from a 4.
>System settings are more customizable
I don’t know exactly what you mean by system settings, but iOS has a decent settings system. Android’s settings page UI is better, but iOS has a really impressive range of settings especially if you go into the accessibility menu. It has all sorts of detailed changes you can make to the UI and control scheme for the phone.
>Keyboard can be replaced by 3rd party app.
iOS has this now.
There are some things I miss from Android - one is the notification LED. Accessibility sets will let you use the flash as a notification light, but it’s a little bit more than I need.
Face ID is fantastic. I love how it sensors my message notifications until I look directly at the screen (this is configurable).
You say that like it's a good thing.
Just few examples from my use of a mac:
You open xCode, nothing appears, it just changed top menu. You click on any other app in the meantime, and you need to go back to dock to do same action that opened it in first place.
You try to maximize window? For some reason it will move to other desktop.
You try to drag a window to the side, like in every other OS, to have it on half on screen? Nooo, users prefer long clicking on little maximize icon. (and there's a ton of other hidden actions like this, looks like new users should just right click every control possible to discover them)
Mouse support is completely broken, looks like acceleration is optimized for touchpad, and you cannot fix it in settings.
And worst of all, I have to deal with this 'perfect UX' because, no you won't be able to develop an iPhone app on your Linux PC.
> People are used to how their phones work
hating on iPhone? It's explaining why both parent comments don't share the same opinion. Everything else I said was very explicitly subjective, am I not allowed to express that I don't like using something?
> whole world copies Apple's UI
That is absolutely false, outside of the Apple marketing machine. Everyone copied Xerox and UI subsequently evolved byways of everybody copying everyone else in one way or another. I've also yet to see an integrated menu on Windows or Linux (although I am sure there exists some exotic window manager that does it) - so there's one concept that hasn't been copied and is entirely invented. There's also the Office ribbon. The modern iteration of flat UIs was born of the Metro interface language, a Microsoft invention - this now features strongly on both macOS and iOS.
If you have used Windows since Win95, CTRL+Left/Right is most-likely muscle memory. This hotkey also works in most Linux programs, including Vim and the terminal. It's practically as universal as ALT+F4. macOS does its own special thing. This is by and far the largest issue I have with macOS. It might sound silly, but keep in mind that I get thrown to a different desktop multiple times a minute, completely losing mental context each time, because I am using something that has the same effect everywhere else.
Assuming I could change the hotkeys to something less inane, I still wouldn't go near the ecosystem. I flat out refuse to spend $1700 on these specs[1] (i5 with Intel graphics), when I can spend $1899 on one of these[2] (i7 with GTX1060).
The iPhone is a different story and I might try it.
[1]: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro [2]: https://www.gigabyte.com/Laptop/AERO-15#kf
No personal files - music, ebooks, videos
Slavishly tied to Apple appstore.
ITunes requirement in the past
Useless Apple iCloud which cannot be trusted in the event of disaster (no retention policy)
Proprietary chargers
Many Android apps are more mature and have more features than iPhone equivalents.
Pricing Of handsets.
Slow handsets after 1.5 years, due to amongst others planned obsolence.
> Many Android apps are more mature and have more features than iPhone equivalents.
Lol. Ok. Even the most ardent Android supporters don't claim that Android's app ecosystem is nearly as mature as Apple's.
> Slow handsets after 1.5 years
Slower handsets after your battery has degraded enough that your phone risks shutdown, thereby prolonging the life of your device and ensuring it's available when you need it. Easily resolved by getting a new battery.
> planned obsolence.
That's blatant lie, and you know it.
The difference for that 1% is quite big in favor of android though.
>That's blatant lie, and you know it.
So you want to say the recent battery fuck up by Apple was totally unintentional? Of course software updates are designed to slow down your device after some years and it doesn’t matter if you use Apple/Microsoft/Google.
I've noticed a couple annoyances in iOS 11, but nothing at all that would make me consider switching. It's by no means ridiculous.
> You just need to look at the frequency of iOS 11 point releases to see what a mess they've created
Another interpretation is that they care more about software quality, and are fixing things that would be left broken by other manufacturers.
Also some of these updates are feature updates and many of the updates on iOS correspond to updates to play services as much as they aren’t updates to the core OS.
There is no need for a history lesson, you can shout about Xerox all you want but in the end It took Job/Apple to make the UI popular.
This is also not true, Microsoft made it pervasive: between 1996 and 2017 MacOS has only ever peaked at roughly 10-15% market share. It is during this period that the market cap of computer users increased from millions (which can hardly be called "popular") to billions.
This is also shifting the goal posts. Your original comment had absolutely nothing to do with "who made UI popular."
Apple made a deal with Xerox and refined the UI while MS came in as pirate and did the rest.
Why is every mobile UI a copy of the first Iphone.
MS does not do design while Apple does that is the point.
Do you get it now or are you still going to attack me?
> I have to deal with this 'perfect UX'
No one is forcing you to do that, just walk away but we know you are not going to do that.
If I would be able to compile and upload iOS apps on Linux, and run safari to test frontend, I'd toss both of them out the window that second.
Microsoft is providing VMs for free if you want to test if stuff works under IE/Edge.
Apple is providing a big F you, buy our stuff.
You are always free to not buy and just walk away from Apple ecosystem but we all know you are not going to do that.
Windows Mobile was definitely not a copy of the first iPhone.[1] I already pointed out that it was, in fact, Apple who took inspiration from Metro - which was the first iteration of the modern flat UI.
[1]: https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/wp_ss_20...
Should I tell my clients that I won't do iOS version of their app and that I don't care that their frontend will not have workarounds for bug ridden Safari?
I didn't have to buy Microsoft hardware to support Edge and Windows Phone.
I didn't have to buy Google hardware to support Android.
I had to buy Apple hardware to support iOS and Safari.
So no, I'm not free to not have a mac standing next to my real computer.
This sort of thing will get you banned here. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and don't post like this again.
Let me repeat what I said in a different way.
You can vote with your wallet but we both know you are not going to do that.
Dont bother trolling again. Thanks
This sort of thing will get you banned here. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and don't post like this again.
Only thing keeping Apple safe is insanely low market share.
Sad thing, that this minority is also loud as hell, so you have to support them :(
And this means voting with my wallet against my will.
Now do you get it or are you still going to argue about this?
Or touch only operated interface from Motorola a1000 from 2004?
And those are not by any means first phones in each category.
They took it to the point when people thought that Apple invented 3g when iPhone 3g went out, when it was on market for almost 10 years, and it was an update to what everyone else had already.
iPhone was way behind Symbian and Windows mobile at date of launch.
It didn't even have multitasking...
Also, use some arguments instead of switching topic every reply.
Thank you for making my point I, you can do all the marketing you want but in the end you cannot sell a shitty product which Symbian and Windows Mobile learnt the hard way.
Apple succeeded because the user experience worked.
Neither Symbian, nor WP phones had such campaigns, and this is why they got beaten by inferior product.
Why do you think Macs stopped selling when Jobs was gone, while ux didn't change?
Apples user experience is so bad, that there literally are paid Mac apps that fix their flaws. And they sell.
There are no iOS ones, since you cannot customize anything besides wallpaper and ringtone there, everything locked.
I bet you did not even have top tier phone other than iPhone in your hands, cause you'd admit it yourself.
You have been so blinded by your hate for Apple that you cannot even accept that all the companies which you mentioned (you forgot to mention Blackberry) could not adapt to a new revolutionary interface. They were so stuck in the past that they refused to move.
> There are no iOS ones, since you cannot customize anything besides wallpaper and ringtone there, everything locked
Hahah that is the Apple way, you have to live in the walled garden, normal people like that. Of Course you won't understand this point.
I think I finally understood why you dont get it, you are looking at this from your selfish perspective, you are not thinking from the average consumer's perspective. Once you see that you will understand why you are wrong.
Let me know if you dont understand I will help you out.
You are wrong again, how many times have you been wrong. I do have top tier Android phone as well.
I showed you that there was nothing revolutionary in first iPhone interface. It was copied from others. I even showed you what they ripped off. Yet you blindly blabber about how they invented it.
Your fanboy mind can't comprehend that, maybe cause you did not see background of iPhone evolution.
I understand that people will not buy best performing phone, rather one that is trendy.
And I stated once and again, apple is 99% marketing. They can make phone trendy.
Just admit it already. You have no arguments besides marketing sells phones. Whopping 12% of phones. If their marketing didn't manage to make it a status symbol a while ago, nobody would bother with such minority.
Go on, attack me again, or repeat your revolutionary ripped off user experience again ;)
I guess we will agree to disagree, you want to support dinosaurs with revolutionary interface like using a stylus and physical keyboards on a mobile while I don't.
This was a fun conversation but I am not going to reply anymore to a troll :)
As homework find something that apple actually invented for once.
Goodnight ;)
